Beacon Hill Discovers Receipts Are Scary
Massachusetts lawmakers want credit for transparency while keeping the larger legislative-audit fight wrapped in process fog and constitutional throat-clearing.
Beacon Hill wants the transparency gold star while treating basic financial records like radioactive family heirlooms. Recent Massachusetts coverage says the Senate moved toward turning over some records to Auditor Diana DiZoglio, which is nice, in the same way opening one kitchen drawer is nice when the house inspector asked to see the foundation. The bigger fight over whether the Legislature can be audited is still stomping around in legal boots, wearing a sash that says “process.”
Here is the kitchen-table version, because my coffee is burnt and the receipts are laminated: public money should come with public receipts. Not a treasure map. Not a court calendar. Not a fog machine full of constitutional throat-clearing. If lawmakers need caveats, trapdoors, and a lawyer with a flashlight to explain their openness plan, that is not transparency. That is a panic room with stationery.